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Cruise compass out of order since one wouldn’t post initially. We made it on the ship easily. Shuttle from hotel was 10:30, we were on ship by 11:30. It could’ve been quicker but we had to wait for people. Braved Windjammer for lunch. Got to my room. On third drink. Drink package already worth it.

A FB post from Royal's Chief Meteorologist from 4 hrs ago: "Chief Meteorologist James Van Fleet added 4 new photos. 4 hrs · ‪#Hurricane #Beryl (you read that correctly) looks like a mess on satellite, but the core has still found a way to go to Cat 1. Don’t be alarmed by the overnight upgrade, as there is a hostile environment ahead for Beryl. Most data suggests it weakens significantly Royal Caribbean International" Also, a tweet from Harmony captain Johnny: 18hrs ago: "The #harmonyoftheseas are already starting to plan for a back up plan for next cruise. At this moment it looks good for a normal Eastern which include Nassau Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Kitts. Exiting times and never a dull moment in the office ;-)" 21mins ago: "It’s a lot of weather in the Caribbean for the time being, it nothing dramatic coming up next week. #Harmonyoftheseas will be Eastbound and all looks good so far. #sunyskies" I wouldn't worry. The ships are use to dealing with situations like this. I would worry if a hurricane was to hit my port of embarkation/disembarkation. But otherwise, enjoy your cruise. Be flexible to changes in itineraries.

Tried to change MTD but couldn’t. Too many of us. Totally okay with it, ir is what it is. Guy was not the nicest though. My friend and I walked away, Walked to spa and made appt for hair tomorrow, cheaper than Cruise Compass. $69 instead of $79. Red carpet treatment for long hair. Worth it.

More drinks, the more entertaining "Operation Little Bear" becomes. Just hope the muster station is one that you can sit at...

Cruise dayyyyyyyyy!!!!! Didn’t sleep well, up at 5:30. Plenty of time for sleep this week. Went on the elliptical for a bit at 6, showered and met up with friends for free hotel breakfast. Good moods all around. Walked over to shopping center for 3rd time and bought a few forgotten things. While this hotel is just okay (Hampton Inn) I picked it for its locality. I was able to go to supermarket, liquor store and dinner easily. There’s a nail salon here too which I wish I knew instead of frantically getting them done between work days. Almost ship time. We’re using the hotel shuttle. If I was alone I may Uber/Lyft/taxi but there are five of us so I’m going along with the crowd. Side note: there are only 20 something of us instead of 35-40. I was misinformed.

What a great family ! You all look so happy to be there ! Thanks so much for sharing.

My girl

My family.

Well, it certainly sounds like you're enjoying your cruise......and you haven't even left port yet!

Have a fabulous day 1!! It seems a while since we've had a Caribbean Blog, so I'm really looking forward to travelling along with you. Harmony is definitely a big enough girl to find some solace, and I hope you don't have to seek it out for medicinal purposes! Bon voyage!

We did Mystery Dinner in 2016 on Adventure and loved it! I would consider it again ?

Yikes! Glad to hear that all is better now. Tomorrow is cruise day!!

Graycliff does have a chocolatier, if I remember correctly they also have tastings, a tour, etc.

Our kids are in college now, but have been cruising with us since they were 2 & 4. Once they reached the level where they could sign themselves in and out of Adventure Ocean (or whatever kids program of the cruise line we were on) we set guidelines. They were required to eat breakfast and dinner with us each day, and participated in the choice of excursions for the ports, so everyone was happy. On sea days, other than the two meals, we allowed them to come and go as they pleased. Guidelines were: you had to be back by the junior cruiser curfew, you were not allowed to go in anyone's cabin, and respect of the other passengers was expected. They each had their own color highlighter and they marked the activities they expected to go to. Luckily for me, my boys are great and we never had a problem. They figured out quickly which kids to stay away from and which to become friends with. We had complete trust in their ability to make the right choices and they knew that. It also helped that they actually enjoy our company and want to spend time with us, so they usually spent part of their day with us. LOL We did have walkie talkies at one point, but they never really worked all that good. That was around the time that they were old enough to sign themselves in and out but not in the teen program. Those were more for them to be able to find us, than us being able to find them. The cruise lines used to give you paper and a pen in the cabin, so we'd leave a note where we were heading so they could go back to the cabin to see where we went. Having to meet up for dinner helped as it broke up the day and we made sure to discuss the plans for the evening and who was planning on going where. We made a point at night to stay where we said we were going to be, just in case they wanted to join us. On our last cruise this past May, we used a white board with dry erase markers to write down what we were doing that day. We'd leave each other notes when we came back to the room. We wished we had brought another one for the outside of the door as finding the 70-something in-laws was harder than the college boys!

@Lovetocruise2002's advice to follow James Van Fleet is right on...meanwhile, Beryl is forecast to be over Hispaniola (Domincan/Haiti) as a tropical storm on 7/10, so I wouldn't be surprised if your Labadee stop on Day 3 on Oasis is changed or is rainy/windy. Other than that, you will be south of there. My unprofessional opinion is that you will feel some moderate waves if you do stop in Labadee and are in the vicinity, so take some measures for that with bonine, green apples, etc. The captain may just decide to go to the other side of Cuba and do another sea day going around the western side of Cuba to hit your Falmouth stop which will I bet will be out of the way of the storm by then. As far as Harmony...you will be in Charlotte Amalie by then, and well out of the way of the storm. My bet is you won't be affected.

Are you on Twitter or FB? If so, follow James Van Fleet (Royal's Chief Meteorologist). He is really good about posting updates regarding storm systems.

Actually, it isn't enough time. Do not go by cruise compasses as that is just an estimate. I was on FotS out of San Juan two weeks ago and they were still experiencing issues on the island. I did self-debarkation and didn't get through custom until 9:05am as the building lost electricity and everything was done manually. I wouldn't chance it as if you miss your flight, you are held liable. You have the opportunity now to change your flight without penalty since the airline rebooked you to an earlier flight. Just call them and explain the issue as you want to be booked on a later flight.

when we took our 12 and 14yr old boys on their first cruise our initial rules we set for them was to check in with us every 2 hours, no question asked. we always made sure they knew of the potential places where we would be. if for some reason they couldn't meet up or couldn't find us, then they needed to swing by the cabin and leave us a sticky note on the mirror as to where they were and what time it was when they left the note. Some may think this was extreme but we just prefaced it to them with the understanding that if they missed any of our expected check-in's, they would be glued to our hip the next day. I'm very pleased to say that we never had any issues. In fact, they actually ran into us much more frequently than was expected. as they showed the responsibility, we gave them longer windows of time in which they needed to check back with us. i believe that they loved the freedom and wanted to prove to us that they could do it, which they did. They had a blast and in turn, because of they behavior, we had a much more relaxed time knowing that they were being responsible.

With the latest July 4th sale underway naturally I was curious if any of my previously made purchases had dropped in price. Sure enough, one of my excursion is now on sale. You have the option to call Royal Caribbean to obtain the lower price or you can do it yourself online. Here is a guide showing how I just saved myself $29 using the online approach. While this is an example for a shore excursion, it works the same way for other Cruise Planner purchases such as Voom or Beverage Packages. For my cruise I visited the Cruise Planner and found my previous purchases. They are pretty obvious, it tells you that you purchased this item before: In order to see how much I previously paid, I went to the top of the page and found the "Order History" link. Clicking on this provides a complete list of any previous Cruise Planner orders (including free one such as My Time Dining). To see the details for an individual purchase click the "View Order Details" link: Look at that, I paid $289. Now it is on sale for $260! To cancel my purchase so I could re-purchase it at the lower sale price, I clicked on the "Cancel" link This brings up the next part of the cancellation process. Since I do want to save $29 I clicked "Yes". To make sure I really want to cancel it, it presents a review screen giving me the option to not cancel or to proceed. I clicked the "Confirm Changes" button. It then confirmed my original order was cancelled and how my refund would be made. (If I had used on-board credit for this purchase the refund would be returned in the form of on-board credit. ) Now I am free to re-purchase the excursion at the sale price. From here you purchase it again as if you had never purchased it before. Clicking the Next button steps you through the normal Cruise Planner purchase process. While it will take a few days for the credit card refund to process, I just saved $29 in a matter of minutes. One word of warning for excursions offered at multiple times. It is possible when an excursion is offered more than once that your original time slot may no longer be available. For example a snorkeling excursion might be offered at 10am, 11am and 12 noon. If you currently hold a 10am booking and you see there 10am is not currently available, don't assume that cancelling your order will immediately make the same time slot available for re-purchase. If you really desire to keep your original time slot you are best to call Royal Caribbean to have them re-price it.

It’s July 4th and I know there is a RC sale but I’m on a land vacation in the Smokey mountains and spent the day rafting and zip lining. I check my email to find an email from my MEI TA. This new sale can save $400 but I’ll have give up my current OBC of $175 but a net savings of $225. I am too busy to check on this myself and so love that my TA does this for me. Love MEI! Thanks Nancy for working this holiday to help your clients save money!

Love the two chairs each reserved with a single sandal. Must be two one-footed individuals of the same size travelling together.

Don't sweat the 6 versus 8 people limit. If you have 8, you'll be fine eitherway.

I've never gotten a reminder. I have a TA this year and we shall see if he reminds me. But I keep the date before me budget wise because I'm so excited and terrified I'd pay late and lose my trip!

With all due respect, I cannot imagine having the final payment date so out of mind that I miss it. I certainly can’t imagine finding fault with RC because you missed your final payment. But then again, this IS 2018 where everything is someone else’s fault. Enjoy your cruise ?

When we booked (via the website) the documents explicitly stated that there will be no reminder for final payment - fine with me, I just planned accordingly. If this information was included in your documents, I don't see Royal at fault. But happy you got your problems solved anyway.

FIXED. After calling back 3 more times, I finally got a nice representative named Carlo. He put me on hold, worked some magic, and now i will have about 500 bucks coming back on my credit card. Amazing how 3 different people can't do anything and just say "sorry". apparently, they have the power to do anything...most of them just don't want to help. whew. now i really need a vacation trying to get my vacation sorted out.

sorry to hear about this, it sucks. primarily why i put all of this in the hands of MEI because if there's something that can be forgotten, I'll forget it. For what it's worth, i've never received notice for any other cruise line either. It's always been on the paperwork they provide when you book as well, X amount of days final payment is due. best of luck on rebooking. keep us posted.

One thing I noticed on Epic (which is the last NCL ship I cruised on) was that the balconies were much smaller (shallower) than any Royal Caribbean ship I have ever sailed on. I also recognize that the Epic is a horrible ship which nobody really cares for. I am actually interested in trying one of the newer NCL ships and I appreciate jti's analysis. Once I get to Florida when I will no longer have to fly to get to a cruise ship, I will probably diversify a bit - just for research purposes, of course !

I'm really hoping he does something July 2020 or after cause I will be there!

Elbowed the whole flight. I said something before takeoff but she claimed not to speak English. She also sang the whole flight...and the lady next to her didn’t speak much English either so kept asking me things. It was bad enough that the people across from me let me off the plane before and told me to “run like the wind”. God bless them. Made it to hotel. Decent. The hotel Comped my taxi ride since I called and no one answered and they offer free shuttle from airport to hotel. in all honesty I didn’t ask which makes it even Better. Walked to market for wine and seltzer for room. Walked on treadmill for a bit. Met up with part of our party and shared said wine. All good now. Shuttle to port tomorrow morning at 10:30.